FRESH fears have emerged over the safety of bank computer systems after two more banks experienced technical breakdowns.

National Irish Bank and AIB both experienced worrying — if minor — system breakdowns in the past week. And the Central Bank revealed last night that it was now to demand details from all the retail banks on their contingency plans when their IT systems collapse.

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National Irish Bank confirmed that it had a technical problem yesterday that prevented its customers accessing cash.

And AIB has admitted that a technical glitch meant its systems were down for a number of hours between Thursday night and Friday morning.

Both banks insisted the problems were minor and were quickly rectified. But IT security specialist Brian Honan, of BH Consulting, said a similar IT meltdown to the one at Ulster Bank was likely at other banks.

Then we get damage limitation, with the following:

It comes as experts warn that other banks are vulnerable to similar problems, which have left 150,000 Ulster Bank customers locked out of their bank accounts.

Pressure was increasing on the Central Bank to probe the systems and outline what supports are in place in AIB, Bank of Ireland, EBS, Permanent TSB and National Irish Bank to deal with major malfunctions. Questions were also continuing to mount for bosses at Ulster Bank over their handling of the crisis.

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Banking and computer experts said last night that other banks were vulnerable to similar collapses.

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Both banks insisted the problems were minor and were quickly rectified. But IT security specialist Brian Honan, of BH Consulting, said a similar IT meltdown to the one at Ulster Bank was likely at other banks.

The official line is this could happen to any bank, but common sense tells you that IT systems are backed up at night and weekends so it could easily be rectified. Banks spend a lot of money to get their systems right and we never hear of some many “technical glitches” at the same time. The following line in the article was quite disturbing because it shows that the banks are under a lot of stress worldwide.

And professor of banking at the UCD Quinn School of Business, Eamonn Walsh, said major computer breakdowns had occurred in banks recently in Australia, Japan, Singapore and South Korea.